It is the sole visible remnant of several centuries of ecclesiastical activity on the same patch of ground, and its proportions suggest it was never a tower in the conventional sense but rather a decorative or functional appendage to a much larger building, one that no longer exists in any meaningful form. The base measures roughly 2.9 metres north to south and 3.8 metres east to west, which gives some sense of how modest the surviving fragment really is.

The history of the site layers neatly, if sadly. An ancient parish church stood here long enough to fall into serious disrepair; by 1615 it was already recorded as ruinous. A survey conducted around 1700 described what was left in plain terms: walls of stone and clay, half of them collapsed, the churchyard enclosed by nothing more than a ditch. More than a century later, in 1829, a Church of Ireland church dedicated to the parish of Riverstown was built on the same ground, presumably incorporating or replacing what remained of the earlier structure. That building survived less than a century. According to local information it was demolished in 1923, and the stones were taken away and used in the rebuilding of nearby Butlerstown House. The tower fragment is what was left behind, either too awkward to dismantle or simply overlooked in the salvage operation.